Star Wars: Who Is the Woman In Black?

The sizzle reel that dropped at D23 hit the internet early yesterday (you can watch it HERE). While largely a waste of 2 minutes, it did leave a few scenes that have blown up the internet. The biggest one of course shows a female, looking an awfully lot like Rey, dressed in black and wielding a foldable, double-bladed, RED lightsaber. For all the lack of things to talk about for the past year, things have swiveled on a dime with this footage, but who is the “woman in black”?

“Woman In Black” Is Our Rey

While we can now prove that Rey is the daughter of Wesley and Buttercup after one too many benders with Inigo Montoya, does this mean that our beloved Rey, star of the past two films, has joined the dark side? Not likely.

So far Rey has never once been substantially tempted by the dark side. She needed to overcome a couple of quirks, but who doesn’t? For Rey to give in and join the dark side in the final film, with no other films coming just doesn’t fit her character template. The temptation that’s big enough to coerce her to the dark side does not exist at this point in her life. Zero percent chance the “woman in black” is our Rey on her own.

However, there are two possibilities that do play into that being our Rey, but neither involve her turning of her own free will. The first of which I favored until seeing this trailer. Before the sizzle reel dropped, I swore that Rey turned to the dark side because Sidious possessed her body. This remains a possibility still, but it’s no longer the top of my list for possibilities. In the Legends Expanded Universe, Sidious attempted to possess Leia’s third child, Anakin, in the Dark Empire II series and Empire’s End.

Then we have the second possibility that would turn our Rey into the “woman in black”….yeah…let’s come back to that in a minute.

Child of Prophecy Take II

The second option might be the “woman in black” is actually Sidious attempting to once again create an all powerful child he controls and uses as a weapon (See Vader #22). He lost control of Anakin, but does overconfidence outweigh common sense with Sidious?

I don’t see this option rising too high in the possibility ranks. While enough time has passed to create another force child, one would think Sidious would then keep Rey close at hand. That he would raise her in the shadows as the Sith did for a millennia, but nope, Rey was ‘raised’ by drunkards.

There remains one variable though that does make this a possibility. What if Sidious attempted this more than once. What if Darth Rey comes from one of his latter attempts, and our Rey was a failure that escaped into the world? Force Unleashed II any one? Like I stated, low possibility of success, but not zero. So, what is really going on here?